Moulded items are very popular in a number of consumer markets. In the food arena, confections such as chocolate-based confections are often produced in novelty shapes, such as in the shape of trees or animals. Also, frozen confections such as frozen fruit composites (often known as “ice pops” or “ice lollies”) or ice-cream are also produced in novelty shapes. In both of these contexts, and especially so in the case of frozen confections, it is common to include a stick, in the form of an rigid elongate member, in the product to allow a consumer to hold the item by the stick, rather than touching the food item itself.
Moulded items are also popular in other consumer markets, such as candles and decorative plaques. These often also include elongate members protruding from the moulded shapes, e.g. in the form of a wick for candles, or a fixing device for decorative plaques.
The production of these items usually involves complex tooling of moulds that are carefully designed and machined in metal to provide a long-lasting and durable mould that can be used on a production line for many years. In a typical production process, a number of such moulds would be made, and used side-by-side, to optimise the throughput of the manufacturing facility. The moulds are typically arranged such that the elongate members (e.g. lolly stick, wick or fixing device) protrude from the top of the mould, with the moulding fluid added around the elongate member prior to solidification. The moulded item is then removed from the mould, and transferred to separate packaging material for onward despatch to a retailer, and thence to the ultimate consumer.
The production of the moulds for such a process is time-consuming and expensive, and as a result, is only commercially viable for a design that is long-lived, or is sold in very large numbers. It is thus difficult to meet consumer demand for more bespoke shapes that might only be required in relatively small numbers. Applicants believe that they are the first to contemplate to manufacture such items having a bespoke shape in relatively small numbers in a simple and high throughput process. It is amongst the objects of the present invention to attempt a solution to this problem.